Alan Kelly
Question:368. Deputy Alan Kelly asked the Minister for Health the number of surgical procedures from public waiting lists undertaken in the private sector under the National Treatment Purchase Fund by hospital. [2471/19]
View answerTuesday, 22 January 2019
Questions (368)
Written answers
The 2019 Scheduled Care Access Plan is currently being finalised by my Department and will set out HSE activity levels to reduce waiting lists across specialties and improve access. The Access Plan will also set out activity levels for the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF) who, following an increase in funding in Budget 2019 to €75 million, will supply additionality to HSE activity by arranging both insourced and outsourced appointments and treatments to reduce waiting times experienced by patients.
The Access Plan is being developed to ensure an appropriate balance between high volume activities and offering treatment to complex long waiting patients. The NTPF will do this by inviting public hospitals to seek solutions for very long waiters either in the private sector or through insourcing. The NTPF will provide funding to the solutions proposed if appropriate.
The NTPF advise that in 2018 they arranged 10,847 surgical procedures and 2637 GI scopes in private hospitals. In 2017 the NTPF arranged 3,636 surgical procedures and 864 GI scopes in private hospitals. Officials in my Department are further collating the information and I will provide the Deputy with a breakdown by hospital as soon as the information becomes available.